Do you remember those kinetic bike lights from back in the day? You know the ones that you clamped down on the wheel to generate energy to light your way? Well, they’ve gone a bit out of style in favor of batteries recently, but the idea hasn’t totally gone away.
In fact, a design student has gone so far as to use that same principle to create a phone charger for bicycles. The Watts Maker uses a small generator to clip to your bike and charge up your cell phone as you go about your daily cycling activities.
Sure, it may add a couple of watts of workout to your daily routine, but heck, innovative, DIY solutions are what we’re all about here at EcoRenovator. Imagine if someone took this a step further and created a portable battery charger that could be used to wirelessly charge up your electronics at home? Or better yet, a stationary bike that feeds power back into the grid? The possibilities are endless.
Has anyone else seen any other neat ideas for turning pedal power into real power?
Source: Inhabitat
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The Pedal-A-Watt system is a similarly awesome bike-based generator. This one is mounted to a trainer, so you can power your TV while you watch it! I’m dying to try it out… has anyone here done something similar?
Hey Kelly! Thanks for the comment. I’ve been thinking about making a DIY version on and off for ages but don’t have the time to do it. I would rather go grid tie than powering directly, but that would likely be harder.
Sadly, the pedal-a-watt is really expensive, but I will be talking to the company to see if I can get a test model to review here. Looks like DIY will be the way to go to get one for < 100 bucks.
The Cycle Charger, a commercially available version of the Watts Maker featured above, is available at http://www.econvergence.net/cyclech.htm
– Kim
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